Sion. Before the defeat of Sennacherib, the roads were unsafe, chap. xxxviii. 8. (Calmet) CHAPTER XXXV. And. These four chapters are taken from 4 Kings xviii., &c., as a sort of explanation of what Isaias has been foretelling. (Calmet) --- An abridgment also occurs, 2 Paralipomenon xxxii. Altar. Such is the blindness of infidels, that they confound what is done to destroy idols, with their worship. (Worthington) CHAPTER XXXVI. Sackcloth. Emblems of repentance. Sennacherib's boasting (ver. 13.) was chastised, ver. 36. (Worthington) CHAPTER XXXVII. Spirit. Angel, or a different design, 2 Thessalonians ii. 8. (Calmet) Lands. Hebrew, "all the lands and their land." The parallel text is more correct, "the nations and their land." (Kennicott) Carmel. See 4 Kings xix. (Challoner) Shut, &c. Hebrew matsor, (Haydock) "of Egypt," where Sennacherib had been. (Calmet) Lips, and treat thee like some ungovernable beast. (Haydock) (Ezechiel xxix. 4., and xxxviii. 4.) (Calmet) Thee. He directeth his speech to Ezechias. Servant. Hence it plainly appears that God protects the living for the sake of the saints departed. To evade this proof, Protestants (Bible 1603) explain, "for God's promise sake made to David." But God never made any such promise to him; otherwise the city would never have been destroyed. (Worthington) They. The people of Jerusalem, or rather the soldiers of Ezechias, who saw those who had been slain, near Pelusium. (Calmet) Ezechias. Sanchez groundlessly thinks it was composed by Isaias. (Calmet) --- Ezechias was afflicted lest he should give way to dangerous joy. (Worthington) Hell. Sheol, or Hades, the region of the dead. (Challoner) --- He was afraid to die without issue. (St. Jerome; ver. 12.) --- Manasses was born three years later. (Calmet) --- The king would naturally have died. (St. Augustine, de Gen. ad lit. vi. 17.) (Worthington) Living. I shall not assist at the festivals of the Lord in the temple. For me. He represents his disease, as an inexorable creditor. Truth. He speaks only of the body. Lord. The answer is given, (4 Kings xx. 9.) which seems to evince that this is only an extract. (Calmet) --- The prophet prescribed the medicine, and the king asked for a sign before he sung the canticle. (Worthington)